Francis Nway Oo Chisholm
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a priest arrested and hanged by the Gestapo on involvement with the underground after the unsuccessful plot on Hitler on 13th and 21st March, 1943. He was a leading example for Christian world who sacrificed his life to transform the system of oppression and injustice even while the German Church was silent at that time. In this blog, we will discuss his life, his philosophy on Christianity (Christian theology) related to oppressive context and its relevance to Myanmar context.
A. LIFE
FAMILY BACKGROUND
As a son of Karl Bonhoeffer, a university professor, psychiatrist and neurologist, and Paula von Hase, a pious and good house-caretaker, Bonhoeffer was born on 4th February, 1906. Through his father, Bonhoeffer received the ideas of empiricism, rationality and liberalism. From his mother, he learnt Christian ethical standards and elementary religious instructions with simple piety and Bible reading as well. Against his father and elder brother’s will, Bonhoeffer decided to be a priest at the age of 14. His father and brother once described the Church as “a poor, feeble, boring, petty bourgeois institution,” Bonhoeffer replied by saying, “In this case I shall reform it.”
EDUCATION
Bonhoeffer studied Religious Philosophy, Church History and Dogmatic Theology at Tubingen University. On 17th December, 1927 he earned his doctorate in theology. In 1930, after a year he returned to Berlin from Barcelona where he ministered a small German congregation in 1928, Bonhoeffer did his post-doctoral fellowship at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. After returning to Germany, he served as a faculty member of theology in University of Berlin at the age of 24.
HIGHLIGHTS
1) An Opponent of Hitler and Nazism
Bonhoeffer explicitly resisted the State. When German Church was influenced and abused by Hitler, he joined the Confessing Church, a movement to oppose State-sponsored effort, in order to defend the church from nazification. In 1933, after finding the lack of decisiveness among Confessing Church leaders, Bonhoffer moved to England to minister two German speaking congregations in London.
2) An Ecumenist
Bonhoeffer actively participated in ecumenical movement in England. He was a member of the Youth Commission of the World Council of Churches. Moreover, he was a member of the World Alliance for International Friendship through the churches. He was also elected to be a member of Ecumenical Christian Council for Life and Work at Fano, Denmark, in 1934.
3) A Director of Finkenwalde
After arriving back to home in 1935, he led an illegal seminary at Finkenwalde run by the Confessing Church. During his days at Finkenwalde, Bonhoeffer shared his thoughts of discipleship and shot the question of “how we are to live as Christians today” in the context of Hitler’s regime. In September 1937, Gestapo found and closed the seminary.
4) A Abwehr Member
In order to avoid military service in Hitler’s army in 1939, Bonhoeffer went to America for the second time. In July 1939, however, he returned Germany for being solidarity with the victims of Nazism. He became a member of Abwehr, a German military intelligence organization which played vitally for anti-Hitler resistance, after coming back from America. As an Abwehr agent, Bonhoeffer tried to make negotiation between German resistance group and the British government. For instance, he went to Sigtuna, Sweden in May 1942 and transmitted the Abwehr’s plans of attempt to overthrow Hitler. He also involved in the so-called “Operation 7,” smuggling a small group of Jews out of Germany.
5) Beginning of Life
On 5th April, 1943, he was arrested due to suspicion of involvement with the underground after the unsuccessful plot on Hitler on 13th and 21st March, 1943. After two years of his imprisonment, Bonhoeffer was shifted to the extermination camp at Flossenburg where he was hanged on 9th April, 1945. After knowing his fate, he commented that “This is the end but for me also the beginning of life.”
B. THOUGHTS
THOUGHTS ON RELIGION (CHRISTIANITY)
Under Nazism, Bonhoeffer questioned the role of traditional concept of religion (Christianity) in modern world. For him, traditional concept of religion is no longer effective for its emphasis on metaphysics and individualistic. It is inadequate as individualism promotes detachment from the world and attempts to provide a secure metaphysical explanation of salvation that causes people to escape the challenge of the way of Jesus Christ. For him, religion (Christianity) is to proclaim the way of Jesus Christ and message brought by him in this world by action. The gospel and Jesus Christ are to be made relevant and effective in this suffering context.
THOUGHTS ON JESUS CHRIST (CHRISTOLOGY)
In this context of injustice and oppression, Bonhoeffer tried to emphasize the presence of Christ in real life. In terms of sociality, therefore, he argued that “the relationship between God and man cannot be thought of as relationship between two objects, but only as between persons.” In addition, he said that the question of “Who is Jesus Christ?” could be asked only to the Christ who is present. For him, Christology is neither concerned with an ideal of Christ nor with the historical influence of Christ, but with the resurrected Christ, the living God, who is really present in suffering context with people.
For him, the presence of Christ is for others. Christ’s being for others is not by his strength but by his weakness, suffering for others. He said: “If Jesus Christ is to be described as God, we may not speak of this divine being, nor of his omnipotence, nor his omniscience; but we must speak of this weak man among sinners, of his manger and his cross.” Thus, the cross of Christ is the ultimate sign of Christ’s being for others, the weakness of the crucified Christ is not only a critique of destructive power but also the way for a person to enter into the being of Christ as being-for-others.
THEOLOGY OF DISCIPLESHIP
Based on his understandings on Religion and Christ, finally we can conclude that he formulated his theology of discipleship, and with the persuasive of this theology (his religious thought) he stood firm against Nazism and sacrificed his life for others.
The contents of Bonhoeffer’s theology of discipleship can be summarized as follow:
1) Follow Jesus Christ in this-World
In his book titled The Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer wrote: “The only way to follow Jesus was by living in the world.” It means that being discipleship does not mean hoping for salvation beyond this world while ignoring the life in this world, but participating in secular life where the concrete human problems are happening. Christian has not to be detached from earthly tasks and difficulties, but one, like Christ himself, “must drink the earthly cup to the lees, and only in his doing that is the crucified and risen Lord with him, and he crucified and risen with Christ.” Authentic discipleship therefore is sharing God’s suffering in secular life. It is following the way of Christ.
2) Suffer for Others
Concern for others is one of the ingredients of Bonhoeffer’s theology of discipleship. For him, a genuine disciple of Jesus Christ is the one who has to model the life of Christ, who exists for the other and suffers for the sake of the other. In his letter from prison, Bonhoeffer said: “Matthew 8: 17 makes it crystal clear that it is not by his omnipotence that Christ helps us, but by his weakness and suffering.”
Moreover, he mentioned that the claim of so many churchgoers as they ‘stood firm’ in the faith was a pretension unless they did the concrete deeds necessary to overcome systemic injustice. This belief in God’s vulnerability in a world of sorrow and compassion for the victims is at the core of Bonhoeffer’s theology of the cross. Thus, discipleship covers the concrete human life situation. In other words, in order to be solidarity with the people of suffering one has to participate in secular life.
3) Confront the Root Cause of Suffering of People
For Bonhoeffer, the church has to obey the state, but in turn, the state “should be true government in accordance with its own special task.” However, the church also has the function to ask “whether or not the state is generating order and a rule of law.” It means “the church is obliged to speak out, when the state surpasses the mandate entrusted to it by God.” Putting in other words, the Church’s role towards the State is not uncritical obedience, rather active participation in accordance with the government’s deeds towards its citizens.
Regarding to this, Alejandro Zorzin points out in his article titled Church versus State: Human Rights, the Church, and the Jewish Question (1933) that
1) The church must point out to the state the consequences of its behavior, asking it to take full responsibility for what it is doing. It is obliged to ask the state whether the latter’s behavior fits within the framework of legitimacy…
2) Furthermore, the church has an unconditional obligation to help “the victims of any social order, even if they do not belong to the Christian community.” That is to say, in no way is the institution responsible only for the victims in its own ranks.
3) The church should not only provide assistance to the “victims” which have fallen “beneath the wheel,” but also herself “put a spoke in the wheel” constituted by the state apparatus.
Based on his theological conviction, Bonhoeffer deliberately participated in the plot of Hitler in order to help and in solidarity with the suffering people in times of Hitler’s Nazism. Therefore, he said, “It is not only my task to look after the victims of madmen who drive a motor-car in a crowded street, but to do all in my power to stop their driving at all.”
C. RELEVANCE
Dietrich Bonhoeffer is still speaking to us in our context. In the context of genocide, burning down the households, rape, violence against women and children, etc., Bonhoeffer followed the way of Jesus Christ, took his own cross, and paid the cost of discipleship. He spoke out not only for social charity but also for social justice. Finally, he imitated as a spoke to put in the wheel in order to stop the wheel.
How about us? How about Christians in Myanmar? What does the discipleship mean in our context in the light of Dietrich Bonhoeffer? Readers can leave their comments below.
